Mike Berger at Pastime Auto Wash has been making the most of his WaterSavers membership. He’s recently seen a 29 percent increase in revenue year over year and attributes at least a portion of that success to his efforts with WaterSavers.
The Oroville, Calif., wash owner recently leveraged WaterSavers marketing materials and his membership in the program to host a tent at the annual Salmon Fest in California. There were more than 7,000 people on hand at the event, which provides environmental education, music, salmon tasting and tours of the fish hatchery. For Berger, it was the perfect opportunity to talk about the WaterSavers brand.
“We spent a lot of time talking with customers and potential customers about the storm drains,” he said. “Most had no idea what they were putting down the storm drains and had no idea about the huge difference in water usage when compared to home washing.”
The event brought in people from all across California, and Berger used it as an opportunity to talk up the professional car wash industry as a whole, referring people to use a WaterSavers wash in their area. “Instead of trying to single our location out, I thought it was a good opportunity to help spread awareness of the program all over the state,” he said. “That made the conversations much easier, considering people were coming from all over California.”
Berger had WaterSavers promotional water bottles and tote bags made for the event, and Lustra provided dash and window wipes along with stickers and bears for kids. “We ran out of a lot of our promotional items in the first two hours of the event,” Berger said. “We will definitely be doing this event next year and finding similar events we can do to get the WaterSavers message out there.”
This year, the International Carwash Association’s WaterSavers program reached the 289-member mark, representing more than 1,200 car wash locations.
“Our members are seeing the real value of having a partner in promoting environmentally responsible car washing,” said ICA Director of Marketing Matt DeWolf. “We’re excited to continue to work with our members to drive home the importance of washing your car at a professional car wash.”
Through October of 2013, WaterSavers’ national public relations outreach had resulted in more than 85 million impressions and has appeared in more than 1,400 websites. News outlets running the stories have included large market names like the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, ABC4 in Salt Lake City and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
It’s also reached 29 different bloggers with 1.8 million impressions and more than 24,000 giveaway entries. “There’s nothing more effective at driving traffic to your business than positive referrals, and that starts by getting our message out to the influential folks in those spaces,” DeWolf said.
According to the ICA, there is one remaining blogger outreach and press release campaign scheduled this year, creating a total of three major consumer-facing campaigns for the calendar year. The last campaign focuses on winterizing your car.
The program continues its work on the water regulator front as well, having presented on model car wash restrictions in drought conditions at the American Water Works Association’s Annual Conference and Exposition. “It was great to be able to bring our knowledge to ACE 13,” said ICA Chief Operating Officer Claire Darmanin. “We’ve spent several years building relationships with water regulators and letting them know how valuable the WaterSavers program can be as a tool for them as they consider drought response plans.”
Efforts by the International Carwash Association and its WaterSavers program are geared to drive awareness of the need to wash your car in a professional car wash. Since the program’s inception in 2009, it has become the professional car wash industry’s largest and most successful consumer and water regulator outreach program.
